When one of Samuel Faulkner’s professors invited him to attend a statewide conference geared toward helping undergraduates learn more about the field of psychology, graduate school seemed like a distant possibility. But as a junior at North Carolina’s Campbell University in 2012, Faulkner knew little about the variety of graduate programs and career paths available, so he decided it would be worthwhile to attend. That decision greatly influenced the trajectory of his career.
The conference, hosted each fall by the North Carolina Psychological Association (NCPA) and its foundation, offered a rare opportunity for students to hear from psychology graduate students and psychologists working in different specialties, including forensics, neuropsychology and child and adolescent psychology. During an afternoon session, Faulkner learned about a graduate program at East Carolina University that combined health and school psychology, a career path he never dreamed possible.
“I was interested in working with kids with behavioral issues, and it was amazing to hear about this somewhat unique program,” says Faulkner, now a doctoral candidate at East Carolina University who plans to work in an academic medical environment where he can teach and conduct research. “I was excited about seeing patients in a medical setting while also having the expertise to help them access health psychology tools within the complex school system.”
That type of career-altering experience has been replicated for thousands of North Carolina college students over the past 25 years, thanks to the Psychology Undergraduate Conference hosted by different universities in the state. The idea for a daylong conference just for undergraduates came in 1993 from former APA President Antonio E. Puente, PhD, a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, who felt that undergraduates had been largely ignored by the larger field of psychology.
The conference quickly grew from 25 participants that first year to more than 150 attendees who now come from more than a dozen colleges and universities throughout the state. The conference is sponsored by the North Carolina Psychological Foundation and is open to any undergraduate in North Carolina who is majoring in psychology.
“What impressed me was the fact that a state psychological association was reaching out to undergraduate students,” says APA 2018 President Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, who gave last year’s keynote address. “It reflects the organization’s investment in the recruitment and retention of psychology students early in their education.”
Demystifying grad school
At the conference, a top psychologist gives a keynote address and a graduate student panel offers advice on such topics as how to increase the chances of admission, what to expect during graduate school, presenting research and communicating with faculty and advisors. One of the critical insights Faulkner took away from the 2012 panel was that he could make himself more marketable to graduate schools by taking on an independent research project.
Now, he serves on the panel. “It feels really good to be on the other side of the table and share my experience with the students,” says Faulkner, now a pediatric psychology intern at Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Among the advice he offers is that graduate school is like having three jobs (one that’s research, one that’s classwork and one that’s clinical training) and that to avoid burnout, sometimes it’s wise to turn down an opportunity.
After the panel, conference attendees visit booths with representatives from graduate programs and peruse research poster presentations by undergraduate and graduate students. During group sessions in the afternoon, students listen to psychologists talk about different career paths in psychology, as well as how to pay for graduate school. This year, attendees learned about jobs for psychologists in data analysis, integrated care, industrial/organizational psychology and other fields.
While the focus of the conference is to give undergraduates a chance to network with experienced psychologists, it also provides a valuable opportunity for faculty bringing students to the meeting to mix with other academics in the state, says Susan McCammon, PhD, a professor emerita at East Carolina University who took students to the conference from 2012 to 2017. “I may have seen faculty at national meetings or the APA’s Annual Convention, but not at the smaller state level,” she says. “The conference gave me a chance to learn about new graduate programs, which helped me to better advise my students.”
Reducing pressure for students
Like Faulkner, Valerie Hoots went to the conference several years ago, but she left with a different realization: She didn’t have to follow a straight path from undergraduate to graduate school. As a junior at Campbell University, she was vacillating between the basic research and clinical psychology paths.
“I walked away feeling less pressure to have my life figured out,” says Hoots. “I realized that the path from undergraduate school to a career in psychology had far more flexibility than I had allowed myself to consider.”
She went on to earn a master’s degree in mental health counseling, but after working at a managed-care organization for a year, “it became clear that clinical work drained me, but research energized me,” she says. Now Hoots is a fourth-year doctoral student at East Tennessee State University and plans to build a career centered on teaching and research.
For Puente, such stories confirm the obligation to reach out to more undergraduates who are contemplating a career in psychology. “This conference should not be unique,” he says. “The question we should be asking ourselves is, why is this not routine for all state associations?"
For more information on the Psychology Undergraduate Conference, contact Karen Gray, director of membership and continuing education for NCPF and NCPA, at karen@ncpsychology.org.
